Revealed: How Facebook hires its designers

The social media giant Facebook is quite unique in many ways. Starting from the concept which led to its inception to the rapport the team shares, it has always been quite popular among the youth.

Not only is Facebook unique in the aforementioned matters, but it also has a different approach while hiring its team members.

Recently, Julie Zhuo, the Director of Product Design at Facebook, in an interview revealed the process which she and her team follow while hiring. Zhuo and her team follow a two-step process while hiring. Firstly, they headhunt and locate good designers, and secondly, they decide if the candidates are right for their team.

Zhuo believes that the best way to find a designer is through the products they create. She first looks at the products that she and the team admire and then work on finding out the people behind it.

“Read the small print on products with elements you like— like a particularly effective UX, or an innovative feature, or a very polished, well-done navigation system, and then hunt through Google, LinkedIn and AngelList until you find the people behind them,” she says.

She also opines that tapping into the design network is also very crucial because the design community is still relatively small. After tapping in, building connections is the most important aspect.

The most important step after locating good designers is to see their work and then consider if they are fit for the team.

“I wouldn’t be able to hire anyone based on a conversation about skill sets, you have to see what they’ve done so you can dissect it in person,” Zhou says.

She believes the previous works are the most important and that is why her team scrutinizes the apps or the websites or whatever things the candidates have designed so far.

She believes big colleges aren’t the only places where one should look, as there are many people who have the finesse of a polished designer without attending famous colleges or design schools.

“Great candidates take the initiative to experiment, design and build on their own,” she says.

She believes informal meetings are more useful while interviewing prospective candidates. A certain degree of comfort and rapport is important. Zhuo and her team prefer it when the designers walk them through their works and what they have been doing so far. Such situations make it tougher for the candidates to give rehearsed answers as there is always an uncertainty as to where the conversation is going. The true nature and calibre of the candidates come out brilliantly, in such situations.

Knowing a person’s thought process and comparing it with that of the team is essential and it is what her team follows.

Ireland’s Data Protection Commission (DPC) has announced a fresh investigation into Facebook, a day after the social networking giant admitted another security breach where nearly 6.8 million users risked their private photos being exposed to third-party apps.

Facebook, which is already facing a probe from the Irish watchdog for a previous privacy leak in September that affected 50 million people, may end up with fine of 4 per cent of its annual turnover – the highest fine under the new European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), The Independent reported on Saturday.

In Facebook’s case, the fine could amount to nearly 1.5 billion euros.

“The Irish DPC has received a number of breach notifications from Facebook since the introduction of the GDPR on May 25, 2018,” a spokesperson for the watchdog was quoted as saying.

The fresh move came after Facebook on Friday said more than 1,500 apps built by 876 developers may have also been affected by the bug that exposed users’ unshared photos during a 12-day-period from September 13 to 25.

Facebook, in a statement, said it has fixed the breach and will roll out next week “tools for app developers that will allow them to determine which people using their app might be impacted by this bug”.

“Currently, we believe this may have affected up to 6.8 million users and up to 1,500 apps built by 876 developers. The only apps affected by this bug were ones that Facebook approved to access the photos API and that individuals had authorised to access their photos.

This photo shows a Facebook app icon on a smartphone in New York. VOA

“We’re sorry this happened,” said Facebook, adding that it will also notify the people potentially impacted by this bug via an alert.

The disclosure is another example of Facebook’s failure to properly protect users’ privacy that may drew more criticism of its privacy policy.

“The investigation will examine Facebook’s compliance with its obligation under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) to implement appropriate technical and organisational measures to ensure the security and safeguarding of the personal data it processes,” said the DPC.

The world’s largest social media network has been grilled over the past year for its mishandling of user data, including its involvement in a privacy scandal in March when Cambridge Analytica, a British political consultancy firm, was accused of illegally accessing the data of more than 87 million Facebook users without their consent.

The private information of Facebook users was alleged to be used to influence the US 2016 general elections in favour of President Donald Trump’s campaign. (IANS)